A lot is on the line in the GESC Thailand Dota 2 Minor Playoffs, especially for Fnatic and Evil Geniuses, who’ll look to take home the title to push themselves further up on the season leaderboards and closer to a top 8 spot for that coveted TI8 direct invite.

As the only Minor left on the schedule, the GESC Thailand Dota 2 Minor fell off most people’s radar. But, lesser known doesn’t necessarily mean lower stakes. This is especially true for teams like Evil Geniuses and Fnatic. Both teams currently sit in 9th (1,3350 Qualifying Points) and 11th place (950 Qualifying Points) respectively. Anything less than the trophy will not satisfy them as they look to make use of their limited chances to propel themselves into the top 8.

As for Team Secret, they’re far from a team with little to gain. After all, they only have a successful title-defence at DreamLeague Season 9 as their noteworthy performance over the past few months. More often than not, they’ve failed to break into the Top 4 in the Majors they’ve played in. As such, a win here will do wonders for their confidence as they try to put together a better showing at the MDL Changsha Major next week.

Having said that, after a two-day group stage, the GESC Thailand Dota 2 Minor Playoffs will be all about the three aforementioned teams. No offense to the three other Dota 2 teams who made it past the group stages. Although capable and brimming with potential, The Final Tribe, Keen Gaming and VGJ.Storm, are both far too inconsistent and inexperienced.

Evil Geniuses vs Keen Gaming

Match Schedule: May 11, 2018 (Friday 14:30 GMT+8)

Things definitely are not in favour of Keen Gaming, who went 2-5 in the Group Stages and only managed to take games off of the two teams who were eliminated out of the tournament: the South American team SG-esports and the hometown team Alpha Red. It certainly doesn’t help that they didn’t exactly fare too well against the other teams in the tournament.

Expect Evil Geniuses to make short work of Keen Gaming on their quest to taking home their second GESC title.

VGJ.Storm vs The Final Tribe

Match Schedule: May 11, 2018 (Friday 18:00 GMT+8)

This is a matchup that could go either way. Even their performance during the group stages do little to help pick out a clear winner, as VGJ.Storm and The Final Tribe went 4-3 and 3-4 respectively, with the former getting the best of the latter in a best-of-one matchup. But while both teams look evenly matched on paper, VGJ.Storm easily have the higher ceiling, led by their latest pick up, Roman ‘Resolut1on‘ Fominok.